Modeling milk urea of Walloon dairy cows in management perspectives.

The aim of this study was to develop an adapted random regression test-day model for milk urea (MU) and to study the possibility of using predictions and solutions given by the model for management purposes. Data included 607,416 MU test-day records of first-lactation cows from 632 dairy herds in the Walloon Region of Belgium. Several advanced features were used. First, to detect the herd influence, the classical herd x test-day effect was split into 3 new effects: a fixed herd x year effect, a fixed herd x month-period effect, and a random herd test-day effect. A fixed time period regression was added in the model to take into account the yearly oscillations of MU on a population scale. Moreover, first autoregressive processes were introduced and allowed us to consider the link between successive test-day records. The variance component estimation indicated that large variance was associated with the random herd x test-day effect (48% of the total variance), suggesting the strong influence of herd management on the MU level. The heritability estimate was 0.13. By comparing observed and predicted MU levels at both the individual and herd levels, target ranges for MU concentrations were defined to take into account features of each cow and each herd. At the cow level, an MU record was considered as deviant if it was <200 or >400 mg/L (target range used in the field) and if the prediction error was >50 mg/L (indicating a significant deviation from the expected level). Approximately 7.5% of the MU records collected between June 2007 and May 2008 were beyond these thresholds. This combination allowed for the detection of potentially suspicious cows. At the herd level, the expected MU level was considered as the sum of the solutions for specific herd effects. A herd was considered as deviant from its target range when the prediction error was greater than the standard deviation of MU averaged by herd test day. Results showed that 6.7% of the herd test-day MU levels between June 2007 and May 2008 were considered deviant. These deviations seemed to occur more often during the grazing period. Although theoretical considerations developed in this study should be validated in the field, this research showed the potential use of a test-day model for analyzing functional traits to advise dairy farmers.

[Contribution of cognitive evoked potentials for detecting early cognitive disorders in multiple sclerosis]. / Intérêt des potentiels évoqués cognitifs dans la détection des troubles cognitifs précoces dans la sclérose en plaques.

In Multiple Sclerosis (MS), one of the most frequent neurological diseases in young adults, cognitive dysfunctions have been under considered whereas their evolution may produce a fronto-sous-cortical deterioration and more than half of the MS patients present such dysfunctions. Nevertheless sensory evoked-potentials are classically used in this disease, event-related potentials (ERP) are not included in the clinical exploration of MS. Two studies are presented aimed at further tracking the usefulness of ERP for detecting early cognitive dysfunctions in MS. All of the patients presented a relapsing remitting MS for less than 5 years with a moderate physical handicap and complained from their memory. They performed a neuropsychological set and ERP were elicited using the oddball paradigm in both modalities, visual and auditory. In the first study, 10 patients without cognitive dysfunction at the neuropsychological evaluation and 10 patients with an attention deficit participated with 10 age-matched controls. In the second study, 10 patients with memory impairment at the neuropsychological evaluation and 10 age-matched controls were included. Our data argue for an earlier modification of ERP parameters in the visual modality than in the auditory one, even before the modification of cognitive scores. In both studies, P300 parameters were correlated to neuropsychological performances (and especially to the attention examination in the first study and to memory tests in the second study) in both modalities. Taking into account the clinical usefulness of ERPs, it is nowadays important to include this electrophysiological method in evaluation and follow-up of MS, and not only using the auditory modality but also the visual presentation in order to detect earlier cognitive dysfunctions even before modification of neuropsychological performances.

[Severe necrotic and haemorrhagic edema of the upper limbs revealing remitting seronegative symmetrical synovitis with pitting edema]. / Rhumatisme inflammatoire de type RS3PE révélé par un oedème nécrotique et hémorragique grave des membres supérieurs.

BACKGROUND: RS3PE (Remitting Seronegative Symmetrical Synovitis with Pitting Edema) syndrome is characterized by bilateral and symmetrical tenosynovitis of the distal extremities. It occurs with acute onset in older patients aged over 50 years. This heterogeneous entity can be isolated or can reveal various rheumatic diseases and neoplastic conditions. We report a case of RS3PE syndrome associated with unusually severe cutaneous necrotic and haemorrhagic lesions, and revealing malignant monoclonal IgM proliferation. CASE REPORT: A 62-year-old man was admitted for acute and symmetrical synovitis of both hands and forearms associated with fever and increased acute phase reactants. Severe necrotic and haemorrhagic edema developed simultaneously. Laboratory tests ruled out infectious disease and collagen vascular disorder. Clinical symptoms responded promptly to corticosteroids to reveal severe erosive arthropathy of both wrists. The monoclonal IgM proliferation discovered during the acute phase evolved into a malignant medullary plasmocytosis. After adequate treatment of this proliferation, no haematological, cutaneous or articular relapse occurred during the two-year follow-up period. DISCUSSION: This type of cutaneous symptoms has never been reported during the course of RS3PE syndrome. It may be supposed that the severity of the initial clinical picture was linked in this patient to the paraneoplastic nature of this.

Effect of temperature, water-phase salt and phenolic contents on Listeria monocytogenes growth rates on cold-smoked salmon and evaluation of secondary models.

Salting and smoking are ancient processes for fish preservation. The effects of salt and phenolic smoke compounds on the growth rate of L. monocytogenes in cold-smoked salmon were investigated through physico-chemical analyses, challenge tests on surface of cold-smoked salmon at 4 degrees C and 8 degrees C, and a survey of the literature. Estimated growth rates were compared to predictions of existing secondary models, taking into account the effects of temperature, water phase salt content, phenolic content, and additional factors (e.g. pH, lactate, dissolved CO2). The secondary model proposed by Devlieghere et al. [Devlieghere, F., Geeraerd, A.H., Versyck, K.J., Vandewaetere, B., van Impe, J., Debevere, J., 2001. Growth of Listeria monocytogenes in modified atmosphere packed cooked meat products: a predictive model. Food Microbiology 18, 53-66.] and modified by Giménez and Dalgaard [Giménez, B., Dalgaard, P., 2004. Modelling and predicting the simultaneous growth of Listeria monocytogenes and spoilage micro-organisms in cold-smoked salmon. Journal of Applied Microbiology 96, 96-109.] appears appropriate. However, further research is needed to understand all effects affecting growth of L. monocytogenes in cold-smoked salmon and to obtain fully validated predictive models for use in quantitative risk assessment.

Immunohistological study of entheses in spondyloarthropathies: comparison in rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVE: To determine which inflammatory cell types are present in entheses from patients with spondyloarthropathy (SpA) compared with patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: Enthesis specimens were obtained during orthopaedic procedures in eight patients with SpA, four with RA, and three with OA. After decalcification, the lymphocyte subsets (CD3, CD4, CD8, CD20) in the bone marrow component of each enthesis were measured by an immunohistochemical technique. RESULTS: Oedema and an inflammatory infiltrate were present in all the SpA specimens, being clearly predominant in the bone marrow component of the entheses. The density of all cell types in the bone marrow was significantly higher in the SpA group than in the two other groups. The cell type CD3+ showed the greatest difference between the SpA and RA groups, being increased fivefold in the SpA group. Within the SpA group, CD3+ cells were considerably more numerous than CD20+ cells-a difference from the RA group-and the predominant T cells were CD8+. CONCLUSION: Persistent oedema with an inflammatory infiltrate composed predominantly of CD8+ cells was noted in the entheses of patients with SpA, being predominant in the bone marrow. These results suggest that CD8+ cells may have a key role in local inflammation in SpAs.

Unusual onset of rheumatoid arthritis with diffuse pulmonary nodulosis: a diagnostic problem.

We describe a case of a 50-year-old woman presenting articular manifestations of rheumatoid arthritis associated with severe interstitial lung involvement related to multiple pulmonary nodules. Diagnosis of diffuse pulmonary rheumatoid nodulitis was made only after video assisted thoracoscopic lung biopsies.

Allelic repertoire of the human MHC class I MICA gene.

The hallmark of the classical major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules is their astonishing level of polymorphism, a characteristic not shared by the nonclassical MHC class I genes. A distinct family of MHC class I genes has been recently identified within the human MHC class I region. The MICA (MHC class I chain-related A) gene in this family is a highly divergent member of the MHC class I family and has a unique pattern of tissue expression. We have sequenced exons encoding the extracellular alpha1, alpha2, and alpha3 domains of the MICA gene from twenty HLA homozygous typing cell lines and four unrelated individuals. We report the identification of eleven new alleles defined by a total of twenty-two amino acid substitutions. Thus, the total number of MICA alleles is sixteen. Interestingly, a tentative superimposition of MICA variable residues on the HLA-A2 structure reveals a unique pattern of distribution, concentrated primarily on the outer edge of the MICA putative antigen binding cleft, apparently bordering an invariant ligand binding site.